The Canterbury Bulldogs have something to smile about at the end of 2018 after being crowned state challenge champions with a dominant 24-point victory over the Redcliffe Dolphins.
After a difficult season in the NRL, the Bulldogs came out and beat the Newtown Jets last week in the New South Wales Cup decider before following it up with a seven tries to three performance today.
It didn’t take them long to get going as the Bulldogs dominated the early exchanges of the game.
Rhyse Martin was the first man onto the scoreboard, but Redcliffe were able to slowly get themselves back into the game, with Kontoni Staggs getting them on the board in the 29th minute.
Canterbury’s errors and discipline let them down, but two tries in as many minutes at the end of the first half, both from long range to Josh Cleeland saw them take all the momentum into the halftime break.
The New South Wales Cup champions picked up where they left off after the break with their forward pack dominating the contest.
Chris Smith and Renou To’omaga were the next two across the line as they started to run away with the game.
From that point, it was always going to be a long way back for Redcliffe, and while a 59th minute try to Staggs gave them hope, they struggled in the face of injuries, errors and a lack of possession leading to fatigue.
James Taylor scored a consolation try for them with a nice display of footwork, but with more tries to Canterbury through Jayden Okunbor and Fa’amanu Brown in almost comical circumstances, they skipped away with a big win in the end.
Canterbury Bulldogs 42
Redcliffe Dolphins 18
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